


A Shove in the Right Direction

by daughterofalderaan



Category: Mum (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28901997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughterofalderaan/pseuds/daughterofalderaan
Summary: Cathy and Michael arestillnot together. Pauline gives Michael a talking to.
Relationships: Cathy Walker/Michael Roberts
Kudos: 6





	A Shove in the Right Direction

Pauline was at a boring do at Cathy’s, as had become customary in her life. She couldn’t deny that tradition has a place in one’s life, but this certainly wasn’t the type of tradition she wanted to uphold. 

Maureen and Reg were in their chosen armchairs, groaning about their hips or their alarm clocks—she couldn’t be bothered to discern which they were going on about. Out of all the available topics in the world, Kelly and Jason were chattering away about dingos.

The primary source of entertainment she could dig out of these get-togethers came from Cathy and Michael. You had to have had your eyes and brain pecked out to not be able to tell what was going on between them. 

That branch of entertainment had worn its course, however. It’d been about of year of this, and their inter-relational stagnation had begun to aggravate Pauline. She couldn’t imagine living like these two, toeing around something so simple. They _had_ to know that it was all requited. Did they _really_ not know?

Cathy promptly told a joke that nobody but him laughed at.

She couldn’t take it anymore. When Michael rose to clear everybody’s used plates, she announced that she was going to get a drink. Cathy made a move to get up to get it for her, but Pauline told her she knew her way around Cathy’s house. Because, unfortunately, she did.

Michael was in the kitchen, tilting a plate over the bin to scrape off food bits. She stood in the threshold as he transferred the plate over to the sink. 

He turned and saw Pauline staring at him. His mouth moved, confused, attempting different paths of conversations without settling on one.

“If you’re not going to tell her, Michael, I’m going to go ahead and do it myself.”

“I—Sorry?”

“You are _well aware_ of what I’m talking about.” She paused and decided to say it outright on the off chance that he didn’t. Which was somehow a possibility, seeing as he was one half of the pair of people acting like they were skirting around the edges of a tidal dock. “Tell her you’re in love with her, or I’ll very well do it for you. If I wanted to bear witness to a will-they-won’t-they, I’d be watching Emmerdale.”

His mouth made an oval shape of surprise. “You…know?”

“You look at her like art connoisseurs pretend to look at Rothko, except it’s all real. Of course I know. Nobody doesn't know.”

“I’m not certain that…” he said, brows knitted together like a puppy’s.

“That she feels the same way about you? It’s plain as day. If the fact that it’s _me_ having this conversation with you isn’t proof enough, then I don’t know what is.”

An unreasonable amount of time passed before any additional words were exchanged between them. “Thank you,” he mumbled like a schoolchild who didn’t seem to know if they had permission to speak.

Pauline raised her eyebrows in return and opened a cupboard door as he schlepped out of the room. She actually did want that drink.

Soon thereafter, Cathy and Michael were upstairs for so long that Maureen started loudly wondering why the lady of the house host was foregoing her hosting duties.

When it was, at last, the earliest socially acceptable time to hightail out of there, Pauline spotted them standing side-by-side in the conservatory, talking in hushed voices about something. They stepped apart when they spotted her.

_They think they’re subtle_ , she thought.

Well, that was her good deed for the day done, then. If only more people simply listened to her, the world might revolve a little smoother.


End file.
